Desjardins 1

Richard Desjardins
Professor Cook-Cornell
English 130
24 March 2015
Transforming the Salk Institute
From the 1890s to the 1960s Modernists felt alienated from ones self. This caused them
to abandon all traditional forms in the arts for more abstract techniques to represent how things
felt rather than how it really was. Peter Barry in his novel Beginning Theory (1995) states
melody and harmony were put aside in music; perspective and direct pictorial representation
were abandoned in painting, in favour of degrees of abstraction (Barry 82). Modern artists
moved away from depicting natural scenes to more geometrically represented landscapes and
portraits with multiple colors and hard straight lines. Poems didnt use any established form and
sometimes were two words per line. Even in architecture traditional forms and materials
(pitched roofs, domes and columns, wood, stone, bricks) were rejected in favor of plain
geometric forms (Barry 82). Architecture shifted from beautiful elegant designs with intricate
detail to very symmetrical and bold with a few windows and a lot of heavy concrete. Modernist
architects broke the boundaries of tradition. They reimagined how to use old materials in new
designs. The designs included very geometrical shapes such as triangles and squares. It focused
more on the functionality of the structure rather than aesthetic value.
Louis Kahn practiced as an architect from 1924 to 1957; the height of Modernist
architecture. He was one of the most famous architects of his time. His buildings reveal an
integration of structure, a reverence for materials and light, a devotion to archetypal geometry,
and a profound concern for humanistic values (Louis Isadore Kahn 5). They looked and felt

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bold and heavy with a lot of concrete and few windows. He used brick and concrete in ways
people never thought were possible, making Kahn very well known. Like most, if not all Modern
architects, Kahn also used representation and was very geometric with his designs. In his design
entree for the Lenin Memorial in the USSR he wanted a structure to represent the Russian
Revolution literally and figuratively. Michael Lewis said, not only is there a literal hammer and
sickle on the pavement, but the whole sweeping compositiona great crescent crossed by at its
center by an upraised shaftis a freely rendered hammer and sickle (Lewis 11). Some of his
work did not represent anything particularly but all of it was symmetrical and geometrically
based. Some of his most famous work includes the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, the
Kimbell Art Museum, and the First Unitary Church. All of which are very symmetrical and
heavy structures.
Kahns Salk Institute (1959) was designed for the American medical researcher and
virologist Jonas Salk. Salk was the man who discovered the polio vaccine in 1955. He was one
of the most influential medical researchers of the Modern Era. After he discovered the vaccine he
decided to have laboratories designed and built for the continuation of his research. The Salk
Institute was:
A spectacular setting overlooking the Pacific Ocean, [with] two long laboratory
wings flank[ing] a stonepaved plaza bisected by a narrow rill. In accord with the
wishes of the patron and founder, Dr. Jonas Salk, Louis Isadore Kahn created an
environment where the interdependency of scientific and humanistic disciplines
could be realized. (Louis Isadore Kahn 5)
The laboratory wings were mirrors of each other making the design extremely symmetrical.
Since the Institute had to be adaptive to the constant changes in science the materials had to be

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simple, strong, durable, and as maintenance-free as possible (Salk Architecture 5). The
materials that Kahn chose for this project were concrete, teak, lead, glass, and special steel. All
of which gave visitors and viewers a bold first impression. The six story laboratories only have
three floors due to the nine-foot spacing in-between the floors in order to account for mechanical
space and light wells. The reason why Kahn, unlike most architects, gave up so much room for
mechanical space because he was very considerate of the function of the building rather than
how it looked. Kahns ability to use axial symmetry, [] tight interlocking unity, and []
sequential spatial hierarchy (Lewis 15) in the Salk Institute makes him such an important figure
in Modernist architecture. He constantly challenged form by creating new ways to use different
materials such as concrete and manipulate light. This, accompanied by basing designs around the
function of the building rather than looks, are all major characteristics of Modernist architecture.
The line between Modernism and Postmodernism is very fine. Modern work was about
being alienated whereas Postmodern work was finding humor in Modern work. Barry mentions
that Postmodern work was more about fragmentation in the arts. Modern architecture had no
traditional form. Even though Postmodern architecture had no form either, it was a mixture of all
different traditional forms of architecture. Postmodern architects would mix parts of Greco,
Classical, and Renaissance architecture to create one form. In Postmodern work buildings are
designed not only to deliver conventional function but also combined with characteristics of
meaning such as pluralism, irony, paradox, and contextualism (Surveyors 4). An example of
this is if an architect designs a skyscraper with Greco or Classical columns, it would be
considered a Postmodern work because normally skyscrapers dont normally have columns. The
idea of pasting together different types of architectural forms to create one form stems from the
Postmodern idea of pastiche, the idea of mixing multiple artistic works to form another artistic

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work. This also is an example of how the principle of "anything goes" is applied in this type of
architectural movement. There is no room for structural ideas and conventional designs when
speaking of postmodernism (Surveyors 3). During Postmodernism structure was abandoned.
Architects went crazy with their designs keeping functionality in mind but it was not the big idea
behind Postmodern architecture.
Below on the left is Kahns Salk Institute without any alterations and on the right is a
digital model of Kahns Salk Institute if it was designed in the Postmodern Era. There is less
symmetry within the design and continuing with the idea of pastiche there is a mixture of
traditional architectural forms like Greco architectures triangular pitcher roofs and Classical
architectures columns.

Postmodern architecture was about cultural hybrids that emerge from mixing (Irvine 1)
which is pastiche in architecture. The image on the right represents this notion of pastiche by
mixing many different architectural styles and experimentation. Barry says, J. A. Cuddon's
entry in his Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory describes postmodernism as
characterized by 'an eclectic approach, [by a liking for] aleatory writing, [and for] parody and
pastiche (Barry 83). The Salk institute is a symmetrical design, which was a large factor in
Modern work. Each individual laboratory is exactly the same on the left side and is mirrored on

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the right side of the image. In the right image the laboratories on the right are rotated and
elevated, breaking the formal symmetrical design, which was a major characteristic of the
Modern Salk Institute. Another Postmodern characteristic of the manipulated Salk Institute are
the Classical columns holding up the laboratories on the left side of the image as well as the
larger windows, which used to be concrete. Along with the classical columns there are also
triangular pitched roofs mixed in, which are associated with Greco architecture. With the image
on the right the color of the concrete is also played with. Postmodern architects also
experimented with a lot of colors in their buildings or features in their buildings to create features
that popped out. Kahns work is a perfect example of Modernist architecture and by using
pastiche the Salk Institute transformed into a Postmodern building.

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Works Cited
Barry, Peter. "Postmodernism." Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural
Theory. Manchester: Manchester UP, 1995. 81-91. Print.
Irvine, Martin. "Postmodernity vs. the Postmodern vs. Postmodernism." The Po-Mo Page:
Postmodern to Post-postmodern. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Apr. 2015.
Lewis, Michael J. "Louis I. Kahn and His Lenin Memorial." Journal of the Society of
Architectural Historians 69.1 (2010): 7-11. JSTOR. Web. 25 Mar. 2015.
"Louis Isadore Kahn : Architect Biography." Louis Isadore Kahn : Architect Biography. N.p.,
n.d. Web. 05 Apr. 2015.
"Salk Architecture." Salk Institute for Biological Studies. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Apr. 2015.
Salk Institute 1962 1967 Kahn. Digital image. Imgkid.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Apr. 2015.
Surveyors, Cockram. "Defining Postmodern Architecture and Its Characteristics." Ministry to
Postmoderns. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Apr. 2015.
Treib, Marc. "To End a Continent: The Courtyard of the Salk Institute." Journal of the Society of
Architectural Historians 65.3 (2006): 402-27. JSTOR. Web. 25 Mar. 2015.